PKK restructures terrorist cadre, strategy for Afrin

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which started to regroup in Syria’s Afrin following a directive from the U.S., has restructured its management staff, education, propaganda strategy and war plan.

Within the scope of the amendments made to attack Turkey, 500 “experienced” terrorists were dispatched to the region from Iraq’s Qandil. The new team divided Afrin into four regions and set up underground tunnels as well as a four-phase border resistance line.

Hüseyin Gabar (L) and Behçet Abdo (R)

As a result of the discussions between Qandil and the U.S., the first move the organization made was to change its commander. The PKK administration replaced its so-called Afrin commander, codenamed “Renas,” with Mahmud Berhadan.

Renas was the military chief of the terrorist organization since 2014. His replacement Berhadan held a meeting in September in the Jandarees region with top PKK officials. Berhadan said that the PKK/PYD had captured one third of Syria, and said the administration who did not reach the Mediterranean from Afrin was guilty of betrayal.

Mahmud Berhadan

One week after the meeting held at Jandarees, two top officials were executed by the PKK in the Raco region. The figure who was executed was formerly responsible on the border. The PKK, which panicked as a result of Turkey's acceleration of military shipments to Idlib, transported 500 terrorists from Qandil to the region.

In addition to this, 3,000 PKK terrorists from Kobani, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and al-Qamishli were transferred to Afrin. The vast majority of these terrorists were deployed to the Turkish border and the Idlib-Azaz line. Around 1,200 terrorists who served there before were transferred to Manbij and Kobani.

Murat Karayılan, who dispatched Mahmud Berhadan to Afrin as a so-called commander, said “At least one person from each family must join the organization.” The PKK terrorist organization also reduced the age of arming and training from 18 to 13. The upper limit of 37 was raised to 65.

International organizations have previously called on the PKK to end mobilizing children for terrorist activity. UNICEF voiced its “profound concern” in 2010 that the PKK recruited children for the organization. A United Nations Human Rights Council report on Syria in 2013 said that anti-government and Kurdish armed groups had recruited and used children in hostilities.

Despite demonstrations and protests throughout the region, the PKK forced Afrin locals to join the organization and went underground following Turkey's use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The organization has shifted its education to indoor areas.

Underground camps have been built for training purposes. Previously, training groups ranged from 250 to 1,500, people but have now been reduced to 25 to 30 people.

Thousands of Afrin locals aged between 40 and 65 are forced into armed training by the so-called “Afrin Commune,” and girls and boys aged between 13 and 18 who were forcefully taken from their families are taken to camps prepared by Fadil Roji.